Along with the usual hustle and bustle of E3, Microsoft has announced the 2012 “Summer of Arcade” lineup.
This year, it features five titles, one of which is a re-release of two much loved games in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Alongside that, we have four new games, one of which is a Kinect-only game where you control a ballista in destroying castles.
Deadlight: In an apocalyptic world where existence is futile, a solitary man treks the American west coast. Survival is the measure of all. In an alternate vision of the 1980s, a mysterious disease has decimated mankind, transforming people into killer automatons. During his odyssey, Randall Wayne will find other survivors, men and women who are no more than ghostly remnants of a fading society, a flame in the desert fighting extinction.
Dust: An Elysian Tail: Immerse yourself in a gorgeous hand-painted world on a search for your true identity. As the mysterious warrior, Dust, your action-packed journey will take you from peaceful glades to snowy mountaintops and beyond. At your disposal is the mythical Blade of Ahrah, capable of turning its wielder it into an unstoppable force of nature, and the blade’s diminutive guardian, Fidget.
Hybrid is a pioneering third person shooter set in the near future, where global conflict exists between a species known as the Variant and a rebel human faction known as the Paladins. 5TH Cell strives to give players a completely new gameplay experience never seen before in the genre.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is the best elements of THPS 1 and 2, upgraded for today with sharp visuals and fresh content.
Wreckateer uses Kinect for Xbox 360 to put you in control of a massive castle-wrecking ballista. With the help of Wreck and Tinker, travel the land and destroy sixty goblin-infested castles using six magical projectiles. Aim and fire each shot and then control it in mid-air, motion-activating special powers and guiding them toward their target. Utilize an arsenal of Flying, Explosive, Splitting, and rocketing Speed shots to explore the infinite ways you can wreak havoc with “Wreckateer”’s fully-dynamic destruction.
Last year’s Summer of Arcade kicked off July 20 – and it included incredible titles such as Bastion, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and From Dust, along with Toy Soldiers: Cold War and Fruit Ninja Kinect.
Of 2012’s titles, Tony Hawk is the most compelling for me. I don’t even want to think of how many hours I sunk into watching my skater dust himself off and try again, and while the game consisted of mad button-mashing, it’s a genre that seems to evolved itself out of the limelight.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, at a young age I was forced to decide whether the harsh northern winters were going to claim my fingers, or to turn to the safer pursuits of indoor activities. Little did I know that a little game called Ninja Gaiden would bring my digits more pain than frostbite ever could. Starting with Vectrex and C64 games and moving forward through the era of electronic entertainment, I sampled as much as I could in the different platforms, and began my interest in PC gaming from wrestling with DOS memory management.
While console games were a part of my earliest gaming memories and I certainly had played on most platforms including 3D0, all things Nintendo, PS1 and the like, truly the PC was my domain until the Xbox. As an old PC gamer, I ever chased the cutting edge technology. Eye of the beholder with CGA 4 colors was my first step down the the path of blowing thousands of dollars on PC upgrades over two decades. Ultima 7, with the Guardian talking to me through my monitor, still haunts my dreams and keeps me ever hoping for a decent Ultima 8 and 9. From the 3DFX SLI VooDoo2s and Aureal to today's GPU driven DirectX games, the new and shiny pictures seem to keep me going. My PC gaming has slowed down with the market shift though, and although I have choice games that will ever be on PC, I have found myself in console gaming with a bit of portable gaming in my life.
Back around the turn of the millenium (and long before fatherhood), I had fired off an email offering to help Ron with a little-known site called ConsoleGold. Little did I know it would be be a part of my life to this day. While I've seen my fair share of shovelware (thanks Ron!), I manage to try and find the fun in most games. Leaning towards sandbox and action titles, I've grown to love games for their potential to reach art. Console agnostic and excited for the progress of tomorrow, I fancy the latest and greatest, but still enjoy the good old classics ... as long as they've been revamped from their 8bit graphic roots.
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